This year marks the 20th anniversary of the most destructive hurricane season in U.S. history. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma ravaged parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida, claiming nearly 2,000 lives and causing an estimated $163 billion in damages.
Hundreds of IAFF members were on the frontlines, answering thousands of calls for help even as their own homes were underwater. The impact prompted the largest disaster relief effort in IAFF history, with over 3,300 checks – totaling more than $1.75 million – distributed to impacted members.
“The IAFF and our members were faced with the overwhelming challenge of responding to the devastation left behind by three hurricanes back-to-back-to-back,” IAFF General President Edward Kelly said. “The IAFF spent six weeks in Baton Rouge and secondary command center locations in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and several more days in Florida following Hurricane Wilma.”
“We did not leave until we were sure every impacted brother and sister received the assistance they needed as they honored their oath to their neighbors across Louisiana.”
Hurricane Katrina began as a tropical storm, peaked as a Category 5, and made landfall Aug. 29, 2005, near New Orleans as a Category 3. It was followed by Hurricane Rita on Sept. 24, along the Texas/Louisiana border, and Hurricane Wilma on Oct. 24, near Cape Romano in Florida.
New Orleans Local 632 President Aaron Mischler and Secretary-Treasurer John Gallagher were among the fire fighters responding to emergencies after the storm surge breached levees and flood walls around New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.
“Communication lines were down, even dispatch, so we did not immediately know the levees had been breached,” Mischler said. “I was on a fire when the rest of the crew and I looked up to see water coming down the street. But what was really unusual about it was that it was rising and rising like an incoming wave.”
Entire sections of New Orleans were flooded and citizens who did not evacuate were trapped. In areas like the Lower Ninth Ward, Local 632 fire fighters spent the first few days rescuing people from their roofs.
Getting to them proved to be the difficult part.
“The New Orleans Fire Department had no boats when Katrina hit. So, the members who had their own boats, including myself, used our boats to rescue our citizens,” Gallagher said. “We probably pulled a hundred people out of the water in just my boat in those first few hours.”
It wasn’t just the citizens who needed help. Every IAFF member living in the path of Hurricane Katrina was affected in some way – and many lost everything.
The IAFF established a command center in Baton Rouge to support members in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The first priority was to contact all members to assess immediate needs.
Within days, the International was providing food, clothing, housing, medical assistance, and critical incident stress management counseling.
“There were a lot of firsts with these storms, especially with Katrina,” 14th District Vice President Danny Todd said. “This was the first time we set up a comprehensive command center and the first time we needed to find housing for displaced members. It was a really difficult time because we were competing with everyone else for these same resources.”
“There were a lot of firsts with these storms, especially with Katrina. This was the first time we set up a comprehensive command center and the first time we needed to find housing for displaced members. It was a really difficult time because we were competing with everyone else for these same resources.”
14th District Vice President Danny Todd
The IAFF matched displaced members with other members whose homes survived the storms. The union also worked with FEMA to bring in a cruise ship to house IAFF members and other first responders, as there were not enough available trailers.
Katrina also marked the first time the IAFF provided tetanus shots and closely monitored the health of the responding fire fighters.
“The prolonged exposure to floodwaters put our members at risk for hepatitis and other illnesses,” Todd said. “We put every preventative measure in place that we could to ensure our members stayed as healthy as possible.”
Once the waters receded, cleanup and repairs dragged on, slowed even further by delays from insurance companies in processing claims.
“I am not sure you could say that we have fully recovered,” Mischler said. “With the help of the IAFF, we took care of our members, but the city of New Orleans has not done all it can to restore fire department resources.”
Every New Orleans firehouse was impacted in some way
. Initially, fire fighters were responding out of nursing homes and other makeshift locations while floodwaters drained, but many stations required major renovations or complete rebuilds.
“Unfortunately, the city elected not to use the money provided by the federal government to repair or rebuild our stations,” said Mischler. “Today, we are responding out of stations in disrepair, including some with mold issues. Meanwhile, the surrounding municipalities, which also lost fire stations, like St. Bernard Parish and Biloxi, Mississippi, all replaced their stations.”
IAFF extends its stay for Hurricane Rita
Before the IAFF could wrap up member assistance from Katrina, another hurricane formed and set its sights on the Texas/Louisiana border.
Everyone worked together to prevent a repeat of the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina. IAFF Locals in the path of Hurricane Rita moved apparatus to higher ground, and residents evacuated just in time for the storm to roll ashore between Sabine Pass, Texas, and Holly Beach, Louisiana, on Sept. 24.
“I was working in San Antonio at the time, and I remember how surprised we were at how far inland the storm came,” 11th District Vice President Michael Glynn said. “Debris covered the streets. Electricity was down, which meant no one could pump gas.”
Layne Stanford, who was president of Lubbock, TX Local 972 at the time, had access to a truck that could hold 100 gallons of gas – a resource that allowed the IAFF to secure fuel and fulfill an immediate membership need.
Sandy McGhee and Guy Turner, the 11th District Vice President and Texas State Association of Fire Fighters president at the time, set up a command center in Nederland, Texas, to provide basic medical care and distribute supplies.
Some fire stations were affected, but only one was lost – Station 4 in Sabine, Texas. That is until 2006 when ABC’s “Extreme Home Makeover” decided to restore the station for the show. Before that, Station 4 crews worked out of a FEMA trailer at a nearby U.S. Coast Guard Station.
And then there was Wilma
The third storm, Hurricane Wilma, was a Category 3 when it made landfall in Florida a month later.
Dominick Barbera, who died in 2018, was 12th District Vice President at the time. Barbera had championed the creation of the IAFF Disaster Relief program after Hurricane Andrew devastated Florida in 1992.
By all accounts, Barbera drew on that experience to lead membership relief efforts, including establishing a command center at Broward County Local 4321 union office.
“Katrina, Rita, and Wilma were the storms that we really perfected how we respond to natural disasters,” said current 12th District Vice President Walt Dix, who was president of Local 4321 when Wilma hit. “We had teams of members going out to homes of affected members to do whatever was needed – from patching roofs to handing out IAFF Disaster Relief checks.”
“Katrina, Rita, and Wilma were the storms that we really perfected how we respond to natural disasters. We had teams of members going out to homes of affected members to do whatever was needed – from patching roofs to handing out IAFF Disaster Relief checks.”
12th District Vice President Walt Dix
“But the bigger issue during this storm was that electricity was out for a month,” he added. “And since cell towers didn’t have backup generators at the time, even communication was a significant issue.”
What changed
Until Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the IAFF Disaster Relief Fund relied largely on donations. But the scale of the response made clear the need for reliable, ongoing funding. At the 2006 convention, delegates passed a resolution to provide 40 cents per capita to support the fund.
The lessons from these storms transformed the IAFF’s hurricane response, leading to better organization and prepositioned resources so relief efforts can launch immediately after a storm passes
Thanks to funding from the IAFF Financial Corporation, the IAFF now operates its own trailers to transport and distribute critical resources in the aftermath of hurricanes.
“Hurricane Katrina really was the turning point for the way not only the IAFF responds to hurricanes but also the way our fire departments respond,” Todd said. “Training, preparation, and prepositioning resources are critical in the face of recovery after a powerful storm.”
